


Green Finch And Linnet Bird

by alienchrist



Category: Gyakuten Saiban | Ace Attorney
Genre: Gen, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-10-28
Updated: 2010-10-28
Packaged: 2017-10-12 22:40:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 297
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/129900
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alienchrist/pseuds/alienchrist
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A boy who won't talk, and an ex-lawyer who can't play piano.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Green Finch And Linnet Bird

**Author's Note:**

> Written for http://community.livejournal.com/pw_contest/ - Week 14, "Songbird", 300 words or less. It won first place.

The group home was a quiet, sparsely furnished residence. Large windows cast sedate squares of light onto faded carpeting. It was clean and orderly, not unpleasant inside, but it made Phoenix itch. It was restless and stifled, like the kids who lived there.

Trucy might've ended up somewhere like this if not for him, he thought.

Phoenix took a deep breath and focused.

Machi Tobaye sat across the table from him, sunglasses affixed to the front of a sullen face, arms crossed over chest to form an impregnable wall.

"Thalassa - Lamiroir - is recovering well," Phoenix said after a moment. "Want to come visit with Trucy and me tomorrow?"

Machi shrugged. So much and so little in a simple, careless gesture.

"How are you doing?"

Another shrug.

Phoenix thought this was going well... for a conversation with a shrugging fencepost. He stood up. "Well, time for work. That piano won't pretend to play itself."

Machi grabbed his sleeve and wouldn't let go.

But when they got to the restaurant all Machi did was stand staring at the piano. Eventually, Phoenix had to sit. He was at work, after all. Machi settled in the corner with a game of solitaire, nearly overwhelmed by themed decor.

Phoenix broke the silence walking back that night. "It's getting dark."

Pulling off his sunglasses, Machi stared at the sky. He hummed several bars from Phoenix's performance. His voice was sweeter, more in tune than Phoenix's shoddy parody of piano.

"Did you like my playing?" Phoenix asked him.

Machi wrinkled his nose.

"You're better, aren't you?"

Machi nodded.

"Why don't you talk? Why don't you play?"

"Bird only sing in happy cage." A shrug, then Machi continued humming.

"He's fine," Phoenix would tell Thalassa later, "He's just waiting for a cage to return to."


End file.
